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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
EC 01 2011A
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Project Title |
Workshop on Approaches to Assessing Progress on Structural Reform
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: General Fund
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Project Year |
2011
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Project Session |
Session 2
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APEC Funding |
68,132
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Co-funding Amount |
104,206
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Total Project Value |
172,338
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Sponsoring Forum |
Economic Committee (EC)
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Topics |
Structural Reform
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Committee |
Economic Committee (EC)
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Other Fora Involved |
Not Applicable / Other
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
United States
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
Australia; Japan; Mexico; New Zealand; Singapore
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Expected Start Date |
08/07/2011
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Expected Completion Date |
31/12/2012
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Joy Hughes
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Job Title 1 |
Foreign Affairs Officer
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Organization 1 |
U.S. Department of State
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Postal Address 1 |
2201 C Street NW, Room 5317 Washington, DC 20520
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Telephone 1 |
202-647-2011
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Fax 1 |
202-647-0136
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Email 1 |
HughesJC@state.gov
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Victoria Waite
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
vwaite@nathaninc.com ; vw@apec.org
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Declaration |
Not Applicable
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Project Summary |
This two-day workshop will bring together policy, regulatory, and advisory authorities in APEC economies during SOM3 in San Francisco. The event will build capacity, especially in developing economies, to integrate objectives, policies, and approaches for measuring progress on structural reform into individual economy plans under the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR). On Day 1, expert speakers—such as from the OECD, IMF, World Bank, and the PSU—will present on qualitative and quantitative indicators of progress and options for adapting them to different structural reform priorities and the needs of economies at various development levels. A panel of diverse APEC economies with experience evaluating progress on structural reforms will share insights. Day 2 will include small-group breakout sessions with the experts to facilitate hands-on work on each economy’s draft ANSSR plan outline. Participants will reconvene as a group to share lessons learned to conclude the workshop.
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Relevance |
The APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR), as endorsed by Leaders in Yokohama, calls on individual APEC member economies to set forth in 2011 their structural reform priorities and indentify objectives, policies, and approaches for measuring progress through 2015, using qualitative and quantitative indicators as appropriate. This workshop will directly contribute to this objective by helping member economies—particularly developing economies—utilize appropriate qualitative and quantitative measures of progress in their ANSSR plans. The SOM-level FOTC at SOM1 in Washington, DC supported the concept for this project as part of a series of events that will enable the compilation of all economy ANSSR plans for submission by Leaders Week 2011.
ANSSR also calls on APEC to establish a technical assistance process and to conduct support activities to assist member economies in structural reform. Discussions at this workshop will facilitate information and experience sharing among APEC member economies and will identify opportunities for follow-on capacity building activities under ANSSR.
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Objectives |
· Assist economies in identifying objectives, policies, and approaches for
measuring progress on their structural reform priorities under ANSSR
through 2015.
· Facilitate expert consultations and hands-on work to help participants refine
their economy’s draft ANSSR plan outline.
· Share lessons learned among APEC member economies on various
approaches to measuring the results of structural reform activities.
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Alignment |
This workshop will directly contribute to meeting the call under ANSSR for individual APEC member economies to set forth in 2011 their structural reform priorities and indentify objectives, policies, and approaches for measuring progress through 2015, using qualitative and quantitative indicators as appropriate. The workshop agenda and breakout sessions will be tailored to maximize opportunities for participants to work on and refine their economy’s ANSSR plan in advance of Leaders Week (8-13 November) when individual economy plans will be compiled for SOM and Leaders to endorse. The Economic Committee (EC) works to remove structural and regulatory obstacles that inhibit cross-border trade and investment, and ANSSR calls on the EC to lead work to promote more open, well-functioning, transparent, and competitive markets.
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TILF/ASF Justification |
Project overseers will engage developing economy representatives to ensure the workshop agenda meets capacity-building needs, particularly to shape small-group break-out sessions that will assist developing economies in tailoring qualitative and quantitative measures of progress on structural reform for inclusion in individual economy ANSSR plans. Funding will be provided for participants from travel-eligible economies to attend.
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
Public sector participants (officials from government ministries and regulatory agencies) from APEC member economies, especially from developing economies, will be the direct beneficiaries of this workshop. These participants will receive expert consultations about how to incorporate benchmarks of progress on structural reform into their economy's ANSSR plan. Workshop participants should take away concrete ideas for how to finalize their ANSSR plans before APEC leaders meet in November. The workshop is open to all 21 member economies and would provide funding for participants from travel-eligible economies to attend. Moreover, indirect beneficiaries include the APEC business community, civil society, academia, consumers, and APEC trading partners, which will benefit from the more open, well-functioning, transparent, and competitive markets encouraged under ANSSR.
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Dissemination |
The results of the workshop will be reported to EC2 and to the SOM ANSSR FOTC meeting at SOM3. The individual economy ANSSR plans advanced during the workshop ultimately will be compiled and submitted to SOM and Leaders in November. Workshop participants also are expected to share the results of the workshop with relevant officials and ministries in their economies that are involved in structural reform, and workshop materials will be available on the AIMP. There are no plans to sell outputs arising from the project.
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Gender |
Project overseers will implement this project in a manner that takes gender considerations into account to ensure that it benefits both men and women and does not disadvantage women. During the planning stages, project overseers will seek to achieve gender balance in the selection of workshop speakers and participants. During the nomination phase, APEC member economies will be encouraged to select qualified women participants as appropriate. Care will be given to ensure that the workshop and all related administrative details are performed in a gender-neutral manner and in particular, in a manner that does not disadvantage women. Women, as members of the business community, civil society, academia, and as consumers, will benefit from the more open, well-functioning, transparent, and competitive markets that ANSSR promotes. In addition, one of the ANSSR priorities identified by APEC will focus on sustained SME development and enhanced opportunities for women and vulnerable populations. A number of APEC economies have also confirmed that this will be a priority in their individual ANSSR plan.
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Work Plan |
The project will be implemented through a two-day workshop to be held immediately before EC2 at SOM3 in San Francisco. Project implementation will involve four steps (1) formulation of a substantive agenda; (2) identification of speakers and member economy participants; (3) execution of the workshop; and (4) distribution of project outcomes. Implementation is expected to occur along the following timeline:
o June/July: Develop draft workshop agenda and circulate to co-organizers for inputs; identify speakers and participants;
o July/August: send official invitations and finalize nominations in July; confirm meeting arrangements; compile workshop materials; and finalize draft agenda including any feedback during Australia’s APEC ANSSR Residential Training to be held in Singapore in August;
o September: Workshop held at SOM3 in San Francisco. Participants should bring a draft outline of their economy’s ANSSR plan, which should build upon the August residential training and include initial ideas for how their economy might want to measure progress on their structural reform priorities.
o October: As appropriate and as needed, provide follow-up ANSSR plan development support to APEC member economies.
o November: Submission of individual economy ANSSR plans to SOM and Leaders.
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Risks |
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Estimated Date
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Activity
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Output
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Risk
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Management of Risk
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June - July 2011
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Work with co-organizers to draft a workshop agenda
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Draft agenda established
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Draft agenda not completed
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Work closely with co-sponsors, in particular Australia which is implementing two events prior: SOM2 ANSSR Symposium and August APEC ANSSR Residential Training to ensure that SOM3 program builds on their efforts and addresses any technical issues that they may have encountered.
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July – Aug 2011
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Begin to Invite/confirm speakers; confirm program, issue speaker invitations allowing sufficient time for processing of US entry visa
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Speakers invited and confirmed; program established
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Speakers unavailable
Delays in invitation letter issuance
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Work closely with co-sponsors, to identify and confirm alternate speakers.
Redouble efforts with U.S. government to issue formal invitation letters.
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July 2011
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Issue workshop invitations to participants
Allow sufficient time for processing of U.S. entry visas.
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Invitations issued
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Delay in issuance
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Host economy will monitor to ensure timely issuance, particularly to avoid US visa entry issues.
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Estimated Date
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Activity
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Output
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Risk
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Management of Risk
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Sept 2011
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Speaker presentations collected
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Collection of presentations; posting to internet
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Not all speakers provide presentations in a timely manner
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Project overseers and co-leaders to work closely with Secretariat and member economies to ensure timely submittal.
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Sept 2011
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Workshop conducted
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Conduct workshop
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Participants/speakers do not show up or cancel at last minute
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Project overseers will be in close contact with speakers and participants throughout the process to minimize any last minute cancelations.
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Oct 2011
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Follow-up ANSSR plan development support to APEC member economies
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Technical assistance as needed
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Outreach is not utilized by those that need it
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At both the August and SOM 3 events, the POs will interact closely with developing member economies and communicate that additional assistance can be provided to help finalize their ANSSR plans.
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Nov 2011
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Submission of individual ANSSR plans to SOM and Leaders
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Individual ANSSR plans
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ANSSR plans not completed/submitted by some APEC economies
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Ultimately this is the responsibility of each APEC member economy, but POs supported by co-organizers will continue to reach out to developing member economies to offer support as needed and appropriate.
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Monitoring and Evaluation |
Because this project will build off of Australia’s SOM2 APEC ANSSR Symposium and the August APEC ANSSR Residential Training to take place in Singapore in mid August, project overseers will be able to monitor progress on agenda development against the two predecessor events to ensure that SOM3 workshop content in on target. For example, project overseers and co-sponsors will discuss observations from the residential training event and incorporate issues or challenges as topics for discussion at the SOM3 workshop. For the workshop itself, project overseers will design and distribute an evaluation questionnaire at the end of the workshop on Day 2, taking care to build time into the agenda before the conclusion of the program for completion. The evaluation questionnaire will combine a mixture of rating (1-6) scale and open ended questions, so that project overseers can receive feedback on the substantive program itself and on organization and logistics. The questionnaire also will seek input on ideas for follow-on capacity-building activities that will help APEC members, particularly developing economies, implement their structural reform priorities under ANSSR through 2015. Finally, a possible measure for success may include the number of ANSSR plans submitted in November to SOMs and Leaders and the extent to which plans utilize the types of qualitative and quantitative measures discussed at the workshop.
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Linkages |
This workshop will build on two events funded by Australia—a symposium at SOM2 in Big Sky, Montana and a residential training course in August in Singapore—that will build capacity, especially of developing members, to indentify structural reform priorities and advance the development of individual economy ANSSR plans. Project overseers will work closely with Australia to ensure the SOM3 workshop agenda follows seamlessly from these events. The workshop also will build on discussions held at the SOM1 and SOM2 ANSSR FOTC meetings and the outcomes of the workshop will be discussed at the SOM3 FOTC meeting and at EC2. The workshop can draw on a large body of structural reform work completed under the Economic Committee as part of the Leader’s Agenda for Implementing Structural Reform (LAISR) and on resources generated by other fora, such as the Finance Ministers’ Process.
Expert speakers—such as from the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the PSU, and APEC member economies—will present at the workshop on qualitative and quantitative indicators of progress and options for adapting them to different structural reform priorities and the needs of economies at various development levels. Experts from the World Bank, OECD, and PSU participated in the SOM2 symposium in Big Sky and project overseers plan to continue engagement with appropriate experts for the SOM3 workshop.
APEC is the best source of funds for this project because this workshop will contribute directly to helping all APEC members, particularly developing members, meet the call from APEC leaders under ANSSR to set forth in 2011 their structural reform priorities and indentify objectives, policies, and approaches for measuring progress on their priorities.
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Sustainability |
This workshop will play an important role in identifying common interests in structural reform across economies that can be used to target and develop future APEC capacity-building activities. ANSSR is a five-year initiative, and after individual economies this year set forth their structural reform priorities and indentify objectives, policies, and approaches for measuring progress on these priorities, activities through 2015 will focus on helping economies implement their structural reform plans. Australia also has provided funding to establish a new sub-fund under the ASF that will help developing economies advance work on their priority structural reforms.
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Project Overseers |
Ms. Victoria Waite is a Principal Associate in the Trade and Investment Group at Nathan Associates. Her current assignment, she is the Chief of Party of the U.S. funded APEC Technical Assistance and Training Facility, which is designed to support APEC and the APEC Secretariat in furthering regional economic integration, support the Bogor Goals of free and open trade, and help APEC become a more strategically managed regional institution. Ms. Waite has successfully managed and/or implemented several technical assignments, including half a dozen workshops for APEC fora.
Ms. Joy Hughes is a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Office of Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of State. She serves as the United States' focal point for ANSSR and coordinates APEC's Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) activities through the EC's friends of the chair group on EoDB.
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Cost Efficiency |
This project offers APEC the maximum value for money because it will be held on the margin of EC2 at SOM3 in San Francisco, which should generate cost efficiencies and maximize attendance, including by attracting delegates to other fora.
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
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Waivers |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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